What to Do When Pigs Encounter Flooding? A Detailed Guide to Countermeasures for Farmers
The pig farming industry can be said to be the most common farming project in our country today. Raising pigs is easy and simple, and its economic value is relatively high. Every part of a pig is valuable, and as long as it is managed well, the income is still quite considerable. Disease prevention during pig farming can still be controlled, but some natural disasters are not something we can control artificially. For example, the severe flooding that recently occurred in Shouguang caused many farmers and growers to lose all the results of their efforts. It had a serious impact on the farmers' economic interests, so how should flooding be handled during farming? Details are as follows:
1. Drainage and Water Diversion
At present, many small pig farms and even large pig farms in our country are built relying on hillsides, or are built in fields with relatively low terrain. The first problem such sites face is drainage, especially when encountering heavy rain and rising water. The heavy rain in Shouguang this year was comparable to the great flood of 1998. Many farmers were unable to deal with it in time, causing all their pigs to drown. The water in the pig houses could not be drained and flowed into the pig houses, causing disaster. Therefore, in order to prevent this problem from occurring, the drainage ditches around the pig houses should be cleaned or deepened in time. The threshold of the pig house can also be raised. If it has already exceeded the controllable range, the entire pig herd should be transferred in time to reduce losses.
2. Prevent Feed from Molding
Continuous heavy rain will cause the surrounding humidity to increase instantly, and the temperature will also gradually rise. This kind of environment is exactly what mold likes most. Moreover, the current market price of feed is gradually rising. If the work of preventing feed from molding is not done in time, causing the feed to become moldy, it will not only cause problems for the pigs, but also cause a large waste of resources. Open only as much feed as the pigs need to prevent mold invasion. Try to avoid placing feed in areas such as shower rooms and washrooms where water is splashed everywhere. The feed room should use cement and floor tiles, because otherwise soil is very easy to absorb moisture. Bricks, wooden boards, and other things that do not easily absorb moisture can be used as padding, and an appropriate amount of mold inhibitor can be added.
3. Eliminate Mosquitoes and Flies
Rainstorm weather generally occurs in summer. With the high-temperature and high-humidity environment, sewage also flows everywhere. This environment is most suitable for the growth of mosquitoes, flies, toxoplasmosis, and other parasites. For example, eperythrozoonosis, circovirus, and many other diseases are mostly caused by mosquito and fly bites. In order to prevent the breeding of mosquitoes and flies, weeds around the pig houses should be cleared. Drainage ditches should be cleaned regularly, hygiene inside the pig houses should be controlled, and used medicine bottles, bags, and other items should be gathered and burned to cut off all sources of mosquito and fly breeding. An appropriate amount of cyromazine can also be added to the feed, which has a clear effect on eliminating mosquito and fly larvae and preventing mosquito breeding.
4. Prevent Stress
A high-humidity and high-temperature environment has a relatively large stress reaction on pigs. When sows experience stress, it causes restlessness, making them prone to stepping on or even stepping to death piglets, affecting their maternal nature in the body and causing the piglets to have insufficient milk. For boars, if the high-temperature weather lasts for a long time and they cannot dissipate heat, dead sperm will occur. Because this high-temperature and high-humidity environment easily produces ammonia gas, ammonia gas will make the pig herd restless and damage the respiratory mucosa of the pigs, easily causing respiratory diseases. Ceiling fans can be used to blow the air apart and strengthen the ventilation of the pig house, but when using ceiling fans, piglets should be driven into insulation boxes for warmth to prevent them from catching cold. Clean the hygiene and pig manure in the pig house in time to reduce ammonia gas.
The above are the countermeasures for encountering flooding during pig farming. Flooding is something we cannot control. All we can do is prevent it in advance and transfer the pig herd in time when the rainy season comes every year. Flooding will definitely cause losses to the pig herd. What we must ensure is to reduce the losses of the pig herd as much as possible. Many natural disasters cause many obstacles in our farming process. Only by strengthening management can we reduce losses.